78 DB. B. SPBUCE ON EQUATOBIAL-AMERICAN PALMS. 



pying low land inundated in the rainy season to a slight depth 

 with an intervening narrow strip of dry land next the river, 

 evidently formed of alluvial sediment deposited by the river 

 when its floods were higher than at present, and rarely more than 

 a foot or two above the present high-water mark, yet clad with 

 lofty trees of types that pertain almost exclusively to terra 

 firma. The Mauritia-swamp still communicates with the river, 

 and partly derives its standing water from it through the mouths 

 of creeks that enter it at short intervals. 



Far away northward of the Amazon, at the head of each of 

 the " canos," or rivulets, that run into the Upper Eio Negro and 

 Orinoco, there is a swamp where the predominant vegetation is 

 Mauritia Jlexiiosa, if the soil be good ; but if it be thin and sandy, 

 then probably the curious M. Carand takes its place, or grows 

 along with it. 



Near the cataracts of the Orinoco, the savannahs arc adorned 

 with small groves of Maiiritia flexuosa (oases in the sandy but 

 by no means desert plains), and here and there with a long 

 winding double line, which marks the course of a rivulet. The 

 shade of the enormous leaves, and the drip from them, often 

 surround each stem of Mauritia with a little pool or morass of 

 its own, which is best seen on the savannahs of the Upper Ori- 

 noco — for instance, on that which stretches from the village of 

 Esmeralda to the foot of Mount Duida, where numerous plants of 

 Mauritia are scattered singly over the wide plain. 



In the Lower Oriental Andes, it is fond of growing near springs, 

 where it finds the necessary moisture, and aids in maintaining it 

 by protecting the springs from evaporation. The inhabitants take 

 advantage of this property to plant Mauritias near their wells of 

 water; whence the Peruvian name of the Palm, "el Achual," is 

 often applied also to the well it overshadows and protects. 



The prevalent opinion, or rather superstition, throughout Ama- 

 zonia and Guayana is, that the Mauritia has the power of at- 

 tracting water to itself wherever planted. This is what Velasco 

 says of it in his ' Historia Natural de Quito,' p. 73 : — " The 

 Palm Agujishi (or Achual) has the property of drawing water to 

 it, from whatever distance ; so that this Palm is nowhere seen 

 without a spring of water at its foot, or some rivulet close by. 

 The reason of this is not that it wUl not grow except where 

 there is water, but because water can never be wanting where it 

 grows. With the certainty of this, when any spring has dried 



